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Published on: June 5, 2016
The moderation of pessimistic judgments associated with high and low dietary restraint
Bret G Bentz1, Kacey Sharp, Jolyn Teer
1Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas 76204-5470, USA. bbentz@twu.edu
Abstract:
This study investigated the moderation of pessimistic judgments associated with high and low levels of dietary restraint using the Consider-An-Alternative debiasing procedure. Caucasian female participants were randomly assigned to either a control or debiasing group in a mixed factorial repeated measure designed experiment. The participants read and made probability ratings as to the likelihood of future negative eating-related events. The results showed that the debiasing procedure was effective in the reduction of pessimistic judgmental predictions for low restraint participants only. The results were discussed in terms of the debiasing technique and how it may serve to reduce pessimistic judgments. Finally, a potential for application in psychotherapy and cognitive models of psychopathology was emphasized.
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